Teammates
by Blagrish
Summary: A fireteam dying for some action quickly find themselves struggling to keep up with the responsibilities of the Vanguard's favorite guardians.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: First rewrite, and I must say… I hate how I wrote this. The quality feels pretty crappy, and it's probably because I was pushing out 1-2 chapters a day. I don't know how the hell I did that, and I don't think I'll ever be doing that again. The overall plot will be similar to the original (save for some major changes) and I'll go deeper into some conflicts that I just threw out there and never resolved. Hoping for the best…

* * *

"So is _everything_ blue?" Axel asked as he scarfed down his food. "Because I've never seen you without clothes."

Maverick sighed and tossed the remains of his rations into the crackling fire in front him. "You don't have to see me naked to know that all of my skin is blue, idiot."

"Rude _and_ wasteful." He smirked as he gestured to the burning leftovers. "I just didn't know if it was something like a tan or whatever."

"That makes absolutely no sense."

"It was a simple yes or no question. You could've just-"

"Hey," Roxy called out from above them as she poked her head out from the overhang, "Your bickering is killing the ambiance."

"Why don't you just leave if we're that bothersome?" Maverick replied, tilting his head backwards to look up at her. Even from so far below, he could make out her piercing green eyes through her raven black hair. The sneer on her face was, well, less appreciated.

Roxy ungracefully rolled over the edge, blinking just in time break her fall and land beside him. " _Oh_ ," she cooed mockingly, "I could never abandon you two. Who'd be there to help little Mav up when he trips on his own ego?"

"Oh please." He rolled his eyes, making sure that his skepticism was as obvious as it could be. "I doubt you'd even be able to fly the ship without my help."

"There you go again!" She teased with a wide grin. "I didn't even know it was possible for someone to be so oblivious."

The only response she received was a loathsome stare, and his gaze was soon recaptured by the fire. Axel shifted in the uncomfortable silence before excusing himself without providing a reason.

Their recon mission in the EDZ had gone through its third day and was about to reach its fourth; each hour feeling more draining than the last. Mapping caves was unsurprisingly even more boring than it sounded, but someone had to do it—unfortunately Ikora considered him to be that person.

"How long until the drone finishes up?" Roxy asked.

Mav glanced over to her then slowly willed himself to abandon his catatonic state and turn on the tablet in his lap. "So far, it's scouted 4 miles worth of tunnels, so based on our average—" he paused, noticing that Roxy was craning her neck to see what was on the screen. "There's no point in looking at the screen if I'm going to tell you what it says."

"Just read it," she said, irritated.

He sighed then resumed his report, detailing its predicted time of completion and return. His gaze rose to meet hers, and he raised his eyebrows expectantly.

"Thanks," Roxy muttered with an indignant eye roll.

A low chuckle escaped him as he turned his attention back to screen, but the amusement quickly left his face, the corners of his mouth curling downward.

She lightly punched his arm and propped herself up in front him so that she could face him. "Oh come on. Are you seriously going to pout all night?"

"It's not you," he replied through a sigh, "It's the drone." He flipped the tablet around, reorienting it so that Roxy could see the screen. The soft blue light illuminated her face and made every quick dart of her eye visible to him. After studying the screen for a short time, she looked back up to Mav.

"Where are all the numbers?"

"That's the thing: the drone's signal is gone."

Roxy's hands found their way to her hair, and she clutched her head as she flopped backwards onto the dirt. She remained there in silence for a good while before she spoke again.

"Why can't things go right for us just _once_?" Her eyes shot back to Mav as she scurried up from her prone position. "Did you charge it before you sent it in?"

"Yes!" Mav yelled defensively. "I _always_ charge it, and I'm the only one who charges it! You and Axel act like I'm the only one responsible for it."

Axel emerged from the brush looking bewildered. "What's with the shouting?"

"We lost the drone," she answered, bunching up some of her hair with her hand.

The distress on both Mav and Roxy's faces was painfully apparent to Axel, so he approached them with a gentle smile. He always did his best to keep civil when they were at each others' throats, fearful that eventually one of them would bite the other's head off.

"Hey, we can just see where it stopped mapping and head straight there to pick it up."

Mav's eye twitched and he glared at Axel, hoping that his stare could burn a hole through Axel's head.

"That's not the way the drone works, asshole" he growled maliciously. "Have you not paid attention to a _single_ thing I've done over the past THREE DAYS?"

He advanced towards Axel, who instinctively stepped back. "Do you think that I'd be this upset if I knew where to find the drone, you fucking—" instead of finishing his sentence, he fumbled with the tablet and held it up to Axel's face. A small text box blinked in the corner, indicating that the drone's signal was lost.

 _Miles Scouted: —_

 _Depth/Elevation: —_

 _Estimated Time of Completion: —_

 _View Maps_

"What about the option that says 'View Maps'?" Axel asked, reaching for the tablet.

"Idiot," Mav spat as he yanked the tablet backward, "those are from previous scouting missions—ones where we—no, _I_ — downloaded the data after it had already finished. The only things that it transmits in real time are, as you saw, all unavailable because we lost signal."

"Well that's just poor design," he replied. He opened his mouth again, but closed it once more, opting to ignore Mav's insults.

"Oh really?" Mav asked incredulously. "The drone would die in minutes if it had to actively transmit 3D renderings of—" he stopped as Roxy squeezed his shoulder. His intense amber eyes met hers, and they stared at each other until Roxy's soft voice broke the silence.

"We're going to be okay, Mav."

The hard lines of his scowl softened as he glanced back at Axel and muttered an apology. He sat back on the ground defeated, staring blankly at the screen. Roxy sank down next to him and gave him a reassuring smile.

"We'll look for it in the morning after we get some sleep." She turned to Axel. "Do you think you stay on watch tonight?"

He nodded and took a seat across from them.

"What's the Vanguard going to think when they find out we can't even do a recon mission correctly?" Mav lied down, covering his eyes with his arm. His question was only met with a sigh and the loud pops from the splintering firewood.

None of them could even remember the last time they'd been excited for a mission. Most fireteams, aside from a select few, were never even given the chance to do anything of importance, which meant that the only thing a guardian could do that wouldn't bore them to death was getting drunk in the City or betting on Crucible matches.

Mav had spent the last three months kissing up to Cayde, doing countless recon missions and resource hunts, all in hope that one day Cayde would send him off to do something that actually made a difference. Instead, he was pawned off to Ikora for this, and he couldn't even do the job right.

He squeezed his already closed eyelids together, waiting for sleep to relieve him of his thoughts.

* * *

Roxy's eyes flicked open at the sound of crunching dirt. Across the burnt remains of the campfire, Axel paced back and forth, tossing a rock from one hand to the other as he walked. Every so often it'd go higher than he expected it, and he'd backpedal or speed up to catch it. He was so engrossed in his game that he hadn't noticed that she'd woken up.

Her gaze drifted to Mav, who was still sleeping a few feet away from her. His brows were slightly furrowed and his jaw was clenched hard enough to make him sore when he woke up. She wondered how someone could look so stressed while they _slept_.

In fact, there were a lot of things she wondered about Mav. She knew nothing about his life before they'd met—how long he'd been alive, how he'd been resurrected, if he remembered anything about his previous life. All he told her was his name.

He was by no means an open book, but over the years, she'd managed to chip away at his walls and carve a little spot for herself. It took about four months for him to start talking to her outside of work and another eight until he agreed to have a celebratory drink with her for betting on a winning Trials team. After nearly two years, they'd reached a point where playful banter was them at their best and spiteful bickering was their worst.

Axel went about befriending Mav in a more invasive way, yielding a somewhat more hostile, one-sided friendship. When Axel wasn't actively trying to get on his nerves, he tolerated him, which was enough for Roxy to trust that their disagreements wouldn't get them killed.

Mav's eyes opened and she quickly glanced away. She looked back to find that he was still staring at her, waiting for her attention to return to him.

"Why were you looking at me?" He asked, still lying down.

Roxy scoffed. "Same reason you were looking at me."

For a moment he seemed to contemplate her answer, then he sat up and stretched.

"Oh sweet you guys are awake!" Axel exclaimed as he excitedly tossed his rock to the side. "I was just about to wake you guys up."

"Okay," Mav replied without the slightest inflection, "I'm going to go brush my teeth by the river."

His ghost appeared by his shoulder, and a toothbrush fell into his open palm trailed by a dim blue light. Scooping up a bottle of water by his sleeping mat, he made his way out of their small camp.

"You ready to go on a drone hunt?" Axel asked, almost giddy.

Roxy chuckled as she sat up. "As ready as I'll ever be."

* * *

" _Come on, drink it!"_

 _He frowned at the clear liquid in the shot glass in front of him. The noise of rowdy patrons and the TV's playing this weekend's Trial highlights on loop were unpleasant enough, so he didn't really see why Roxy was insisting that he drink._

" _No."_

 _She emptied her own before grabbing his and holding it just in front of his shut mouth. "Please. Just one."_

 _The pungent smell of Vodka stung his nostrils, and he lowered Roxy's hand with his own. "Making me smell it isn't the way to convince me."_

 _Roxy snorted, covering her mouth with her free hand. Little crinkles formed beneath her bright green eyes, and it was easy see that she was grinning from ear to ear, even with her face covered. She rested both arms on the bar then gave Mav one last pleading look._

" _Do it for me?"_

 _Mav smirked. "That makes me want to do it less."_

 _In spite of his words, he took the shot glass from her hand and downed it in one quick motion. The liquid burned a trail down his throat, settling in his chest, and Mav remembered just how much he hated alcohol._

 _Roxy giggled at the sight of his grimace and hunched posture, and he sat in silence waiting for the sensation to pass. While she waited for him, she flagged down the bartender for a glass of water which Mav gratefully accepted._

" _I hope you're satisfied," Mav said with a mock scowl after he'd finished half of the glass._

" _You wouldn't even know."_


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: I've decided to change the rating to M since this story will feature fairly graphic violence.

* * *

Maverick sat at the edge of the river bank as he vigorously scrubbed his teeth with a toothbrush far past its prime. The bristles had softened to the point where each scrub required a purposeful push for the brush to do its job. Every now and then, the thought of getting a new one crossed his mind, but he never did; the worn brush was physical proof of a job well done.

He leaned forward and spat out the remaining toothpaste, briefly watching it float down the gentle stream before rinsing the rest of it from his mouth.

"You know you could always just use those fizzy pills the Vanguard gives us instead of an actual toothbrush," Axel said from behind him, "They're free, too."

Mav glanced over his shoulder, mildly annoyed that his morning ritual had been disturbed. "It doesn't feel like it gets in between my teeth." He paused. "And they taste bad."

"But they don't taste like anything."

"Exactly," Mav replied as he stood up. He dusted off his legs with one hand while he held out his toothbrush with the other, allowing his ghost to retrieve it. Why Axel had approached him or why he hadn't left was something Mav couldn't figure out, so he turned around and waited for the titan to say something.

"All finished up?" Axel asked.

Mav raised an eyebrow, not believing that was all he had to say.

"You didn't follow me out here to make sure I brushed my teeth."

Axel's hands went up in surrender. "I… I just wanted to tell you that we are going find that drone," he said reassuringly, "The Vanguard won't even know that we lost it."

"And how do you know that?" Mav asked, pressing his tongue against his cheek as he briefly wondered whether that was the appropriate response or not.

Axel pursed his lips before turning around with a sigh. "Never mind."

A few minutes passed before Mav decided that he wanted to leave the river and head back to camp.

His thoughts wandered back to Axel. He always felt a slight twinge of guilt each time he shot down Axel's attempts at friendliness. It wasn't that he didn't like him—he was a nice guy—but something just didn't sit quite right with Mav when it came to him. He'd been truthful to both Axel and the Vanguard, informing them that they were not a good fit and that it could hinder their potential as a team; neither seemed to care.

A soft hum interrupted his thoughts and he froze in his tracks, trying to focus his attention to the sound. He quickly swiveled around, eyes darting back and forth between the trees, but the sound seemed to be coming from a different place each time he turned.

 _Stealth vandals_

Realizing he was being circled, he began to walk again and did his best to make it seem like he had stopped searching for the source of the noise. His pulse began to quicken, and he silently cursed himself as the loud thumps of his heartbeat gradually drowned out the sound of his surroundings.

"Ghost?"

His ghost materialized by his shoulder, seemingly as alarmed as he was, its shell emitting a quiet whir with each quick turn. The campground was hidden from his sight by a dense wall of trees, and he shuddered at the thought of being killed without his team even being aware.

Instinctively, he raised his hand to his ear to activate his communicator only to remember that he hadn't put it back in when he woke up. A frustrated grunt escaped him and he shifted his eyes to his ghost.

"How far am I from the others?" he asked in a low voice.

"127 meters."

Mav's stomach turned as he remembered that Axel had left camp just moments after he did, meaning that both he and Roxy could have already been ambushed and killed while they were separated.

Pushing away the thought, he quickly ran through his options. A blind nova bomb would leave him drained, and hitting even one of them was not guaranteed. His hand hovered over his sidearm, hoping that it'd be able to keep up with their shock blades.

"I'm going to start shooting, and as soon as I do, I need you to fly over to Roxy and Axel and bring them to me," Mav said through a shaky breath. He took one last hesitant look at his ghost before snatching up his weapon.

The once quiet forest erupted with the battle cries of the Fallen as they barreled toward Mav from all sides. There was only enough time for him to shoot the vandal in front of him before he was knocked to the ground, his gun falling haplessly to the side.

Sharp rocks dug into his palms as he slid forward, and he swiftly rolled over trying to right himself. His leg shot out to meet the chin of a pouncing vandal, whipping its head back with a sickening crunch, but he wasn't quick enough to keep another from landing square on his stomach.

Mav sharply inhaled and writhed under the wicked claws that dug into his abdomen. The vandal's blades plunged toward him, and he flung his hands forward with a surge of Void Light, barely catching them before they could impale him. With great effort, he forced his hands between the sharp edge and his exposed neck.

Every muscle screamed as they were gradually depleted of their Light in an effort to push back the vandal. His breathing soon degenerated to short, labored gasps, each one becoming more desperate than the last. He could feel himself slipping. The Light flowing from his palms began to flicker, allowing the crackling blades to inch closer.

He heard a distant cry. Roxy's voice. Gunshots rang in the air, but they sounded strange to Mav—like his head had been plunged underwater. Only then did he notice that his vision was fading, blinking in and out of focus until he could no longer make out what he was looking at.

Then the pain hit him, a white-hot, searing pain that coursed from his hands down to his shoulders. His entire body seized up in shock as warm blood began to trickle down his arms. He didn't even know if he screamed or not.

Whatever he was feeling, he knew it wasn't death. Death was something he wasn't fond of, but for the most part, it was quick. He often couldn't even remember the moment he died once he'd been resurrected—it was a lot like sleep. He'd close his eyes then open them to find himself back to normal. But this… it felt a lot worse to say the least.

The last thing he could remember was a warm hand against his cheek before his world turned black.

* * *

 _Mav stared through a dirty window, enthralled by the scene within the glass._

 _A rugged man sat hunched over his makeshift workbench, concentrating on the broken radio that lied sprawled out in front of him. The dimly lit ruins of the old news station did little to improve his productivity, and he soon found himself taking his third break within the hour. The man scratched at his scruffy beard before turning to the window, his gaze looking straight past Mav._

 _With a shaky hand, Mav reached toward the glass, placing it flat against the dusty surface. Between his fingers he saw a little boy shuffle behind the man, and he quickly drew back to get a better look._

 _The boy was clutching something in his hands, shyly waiting for the older man to notice his presence. As the man looked back, Mav could hear an echoey chuckle through the glass._

" _Whatcha got there, short stuff?" the man asked._

 _Hesitantly, the boy unfolded his hands to reveal a small screwdriver. "I thought this could help," he said as he nodded toward the workbench._

 _The man plucked the screwdriver from his hands, pretending to study it. Mav looked back to the boy, who was anxiously waiting for a response._

" _You know what?" he asked with a wide smile on his face, "This is exactly what I needed." His strong hand clapped the boy's shoulder, making his eyes light up at the man's approval._

" _Really?"_

" _Yeah, of course," he replied enthusiastically, "I'm gonna get this radio fixed in no time! Awesome job, kiddo!"_

 _Mav found himself smiling with the boy, but the glass began to disappear as the image faded before him, leaving him alone in dark once again._

* * *

Even as his wounds healed, Roxy struggled to look at them and she forced her gaze upward. Mav lied cradled in her arms while his ghost funneled Light into his marred hands; her own ghost floated nearby, attending to the deep puncture wounds in his sides. His shredded cloak was strewn aside, exposing his bare skin, slick with drying blood and dirt.

By the time she arrived with Axel, Mav was already on the ground, and three vandals charged at them before they could reach him. The engagement had only lasted a couple of minutes, but it was enough time for the vandal to break through Mav's Light shield and cleave his hands in two.

Axel pressed a fist against his mouth as he stared at his bloodied teammate. "I think that might be the most horrific thing I've ever seen."

Roxy made the mistake of looking back down at Mav's hands. Shattered bones protruded from the open wound, complimented by seared flesh in places where the shock blades had made contact with it. She tightened her throat to hold back a gag.

His eyes fluttered open at the sound of their voices, and relief instantly washed over Roxy.

"Welcome back," she said softly.

He looked up at her then down to his injuries, intently examining them with a mixture of curiosity and disgust. After a moment, he leaned his head back and closed his eyes.

"Ow," he muttered tiredly.

"Well put," Axel added with a grin.

Mav's lids opened slightly before he shut them again, only grunting in response. A smirk crossed Roxy's face, and she gently brushed away the loose wisps of white hair from Mav's forehead.

They waited patiently for the ghosts to finish.

* * *

Mav wiggled his arms into the sleeves of his Vanguard-issued shirt before pulling the rest over his head, allowing the stretchy material to wrap around his body. The signature "V" adorned the left side of his chest while the rest of the garment remained stark white.

After he had briefly mourned the loss of yet another cloak, they returned to the camp and began prepping for the drone hunt, much to Roxy's protest.

"How do we know more Fallen aren't on their way," she said, placing her hands on her hips, "We weren't exactly quiet back there."

"Roxy," he said as he rummaged through his bag, "I'm not going back to Ikora to tell her that I abandoned the drone because we had a scuffle with some vandals."

She stared at him in disbelief. When he failed to look back at her, she walked around in front of him and crouched down.

Mav lifted his gaze and pursed his lips. "Can you at least say something instead of just looking at me like that?"

"That 'scuffle' left you with two mangled hands and four holes in your stomach," she said with malicious compliance.

"And they're healed," he replied, holding his hands up for her to see.

Roxy let out an exasperated sigh then looked at Axel. "Can you back me up here?"

"I'd really rather not get involved with this," Axel said as he scratched his neck uncomfortably.

After quickly glaring at Axel, she turned back to Mav with a stern look. "How about _I_ tell Ikora? I'll say that I made you come back and that you wanted to stay."

He considered her offer for a moment before shaking his head. Defeated, she stood back up and blinked to the top of the overhang. Sitting down on the rocks above, she rested her chin on her knees and turned her back to the two of them. Axel cast a worried glance at Mav, met only by an indifferent shrug.

"She can throw a tantrum if she wants," he said loudly enough for her to hear him, "I'm not leaving without that drone."

Axel frowned and crossed his arms disapprovingly. "It wouldn't kill you to be a little nicer about it."

Mav rolled his eyes, wondering if one day they would just roll back into his head and stay there. "There are a lot of things that won't kill me—doesn't mean I have to do it."

A hand caught Mav's shoulder as he began to walk toward the cave entrance. "She coddled you like a baby when you were hurt. The least you can do right now is not be a dick."

"That was her choice," Mav said with narrowed eyes, dark creases forming at the sides of his mouth. He shoved past Axel and waved dismissively. "I'm going in. You two can stand guard out here."

Axel stepped in front of him once more and he loomed over Mav with a look that the warlock hadn't seen in a while. "What the hell is your problem?"

He paused, briefly surprised by the uncharacteristic aggression. Shifting his eyes downward, he began to feel a whole lot smaller in Axel's shadow. "It's none of your business," he mumbled, and he blinked past Axel and made his way down into the cave.

The air was surprisingly crisp.

Mav took a deep breath through his nose, figuring that a stream from a nearby mountain probably ran through the cave. The light from the entrance was quickly fading, and he held out a hand to summon his ghost.

"Some light, please."

His ghost obliged, illuminating the cave before him. He found himself standing in a rather large clearing, wide enough for him to fit his entire bedroom within the cave's walls. Puddles on the floor shimmered in the newfound light with faint ripples appearing as small droplets fell from the ceiling.

A single path stood among pillars of rock just ten feet farther down the cave, a thin stream of water forming a path straight to it. Mav shrugged and trudged on.

 _Easier for me_

After walking for what his ghost said was a mile and a half, he stopped at a fork in the path then eyed his surroundings. Something seemed off to him, and his gaze slowly drifted down to the floor. The stream continued beneath his feet before turning sharply right into one of the paths. Mav crouched down and studied the ground, realizing that the tunnel with the stream had a suspicious amount of loose dirt littering its floor.

"Ghost, are you picking up any movement up ahead?"

The quiet whir of his ghost echoed down the cave as it completed its scan. "Nothing."

Mav nodded before cautiously continuing along the trickling water. The path opened up to a large cavern, and he sucked in his breath at the sight. Hundreds of Fallen crates were stacked high along the walls with other bits and pieces of dissected machinery lying at its base. Among the rubble lied a dormant recon drone, seemingly unharmed aside from a few dents in its casing.

With a quick burst of Light, he launched the lid off of a nearby container to examine what was inside. Lined up in neat rows was enough shrapnel launchers to arm at least 20 of those four-armed freaks, and he paled at the thought of what other weapons could be in the rest of the crates.

He quickly reached up and activated his communicator. "Roxy and Axel, come in."

No signal.

"Ghost, send the drone and me back into orbit."

He paced around urgently while he waited to be transported. After a short while, Mav stood in the cockpit of his team's shuttle, and he hastily threw on a headset as he pressed his free hand against the control panel.

"Roxy and Axel, return to orbit _immediately_ ," he said frantically, "The cave was a weapons cache and I think we just killed its guards."

A loud crackle of static sounded in his headset followed by Roxy's voice. "I knew it. I _fucking_ knew it."

Mav sighed inwardly, mentally preparing himself for her imminent arrival on the ship.

"If it's a weapons cache, shouldn't we destroy it?" Axel chimed in.

"There were enough guns to supply a ketch," Mav answered, "We got lucky and stumbled upon it while most of them were gone, but I doubt it'll stay that way for long."

He heard a faint whoosh from behind him accompanied by light footfalls on the metal floor. Swiveling around, his gaze met Roxy's who stood only a few feet away from him, her eyes burning with fiery rage.

"We could've died back there—all of us," she snapped angrily, "but you had to get that worthless drone, right?" Her words spilled out of her mouth like venom.

He didn't know what had triggered it, but a sudden wave of unbridled wrath overcame him, and he soon found himself leaning toward her menacingly, his jaw tight.

"The drone was saved."

He took a step forward without breaking eye contact.

"I located a Fallen weapon stash."

Another step.

"And you made it out safely."

By the time the last words left his mouth, he was merely inches away from her. "Yet you still have the nerve to think you're in the right?"

His expression shifted in to one of pure contempt as he continued on his tirade. "We have something with _real_ importance to report to the Vanguard—something that can finally put us on their fucking radar, and you," he paused, struggling to find the right words to properly express his indignation, "You're going to give me shit for this?"

"'Cause the Vanguard's all that matters to you," she said with genuine hurt, "Not me. Not Axel. God forbid you actually give a shit about your friends."

Mav stared at her with wide eyes. "You don't think I give a shit about you? I'm doing all of this for _us._ I've been breaking my back for months just trying to get us an actual mission. All I wanted was for us to—"

"Cut the bullshit, Mav," Roxy said through a shaky laugh, tears welling up in her eyes, "You're not doing any of this for us. It's for you. It's _always_ been for you. You wouldn't care if you lost one of us back there so long as you have a good report to send in."

Her words hung in the air, and for a brief moment, the cockpit felt like an echo chamber to Mav—repeating the sentence over and over again.

Mav fell silent before returning to the front of the cockpit, the heavy silence weighing down oppressively on his shoulders.

"You're wrong," he said blankly, his voice empty of any anger he had just moments before.

He deftly flicked up three switches on the center console, preparing the ship for a jump into hyper space. Even with the increasingly loud humming of the ship, he heard Roxy take a seat behind him followed by Axel, who'd just teleported in.

The shuttle catapulted forward, headed toward the City.

* * *

Any attempt at sleeping was in vain.

Mav sat up in bed for the fourth time that night, leaning his head back against the headboard. Sluggishly, he dragged the tablet on his nightstand to his bed and pulled it onto his lap and turned it on.

The bright light assaulted his retinas, which made everything on the screen nearly impossible to decipher. When his vision had finally adjusted, he noticed a small "V" icon on the top corner of his screen. His hand hovered over the notification for a moment before clicking on it, opening up a direct message from Cayde-6.

 _Reconnaissance operatives confirmed your report of a hidden armory. Assault on the stash will begin tomorrow morning at 0800 hours to prevent relocation. Scouts will remain onsite until the attack to monitor the cave._

 _I want you and your team there tomorrow and I've already sent a message to Roxy and Axel. Expect a call in the morning._

Mav shut off his tablet unceremoniously, allowing it to fall back into his lap. He wasn't sure what was wrong. In any world ever conceived, he'd be overjoyed by the message—at least he thought he would be. But instead he just felt tired.

Tired and aching for sleep.

He sunk back down and tucked his arm beneath his head, wondering why he felt so unfulfilled.


End file.
